Newly Diagnosed. Concerned & Stressed

Hello!! Our ~11 year old female cat (Jai) was diagnosed with Diabetes on Friday. We had been noticing concerning symptoms for ~ 2 months before bringing her in, mainly drinking and urinating a lot plus a big weight loss. I didn't know the back leg pain was a sign of diabetes, we've always considered her to have "tender" back legs (we adopted her ~8 years ago). She's always been "voracious" and we've had her on a "diet" ever since we adopted her - although she never lost weight until the past few months (down 3 pounds from 13.5 lbs from her last weigh in 3 years ago). Our vet did not give us much instructions, so we're feeling overwhelmed and a bit stressed/scared of experiencing a hypoglycemic episode. Jai's glucose was over 500 on Friday and is now on 2U of ProZinc every 12 hours, injections seem to be going well. We're also transitioning her to a mix of Purina DM wet and dry food (after research we're likely to try to be more exclusively wet food eventually). Our vet said nothing about testing glucose levels daily, they did set up a glucose curve for this Friday (1 week from diagnosis) - however we'll be ordering a meter and doing some testing before then. We are kinda fumbling in the dark with all this and glad that there is a place to ask questions and get support! I'm sure this will be the first of many posts.

Welcome to you and your very spotty girl! There's a lot of help and support here for you. Go and ask all your questions on the main health forum where more people will see them. You can also post on the ProZinc forum for insulin specific advice.